Generally speaking I am…

Generally speaking I am opposed to any billboards, but especially digital/animated billboards proliferating on our roads and highways. I think they are an unnecessary distraction to drivers and an uglification of our landscape.

I have driven in the US and other places where the roads are lined with billboards. They are hideous, and their messages an inescapable invasion by the commercial/corporate sphere into our lives.

As far as digital billboards go, it makes no sense to outlaw people looking at their phones while driving, and then to put television screens on the side of the road instead. If these things are lit up all night (digital or not), it will change the nighttime landscape significantly.

There is NO public benefit to billboards outside of possible licensing fees, and I cannot imagine that what could be offered by the advertising companies that stand to benefit most from such billboards would be willing to pay anything close to what would make it worth it for the province to accept.

I just don't see any good reason to allow any more billboards than already exist, and I fully support strengthening and better enforcing the policies that currently exist, forcing the destruction of illegal ones and preventing new ones going up.

[Original Comment ID: 205309]